“Polyamine” is a generic name for aliphatic hydrocarbons having two or more primary amino groups, which are natural substances present within living bodies. Twenty or more polyamines have been found. In recent years, various bioactivities of polyamines have been found and polyamines are gaining importance. It is known that polyamines mainly have the following bioactivities: (1) stabilizing nucleic acids or changing the structure of nucleic acids due to the polyamine-nucleic acid interaction; (2) activity of promoting various nucleic-acid synthetic systems; (3) activating protein synthetic systems; (4) stabilizing cell membranes or enhancing membrane permeability to substances; (5) eliminating active oxygen; (6) promoting cell proliferation; and (7) anti-allergic activity. Polyamines or polyamine compositions have come to be applied to health foods, cosmetics, food products, and medical and pharmaceutical products.
The following industrially applicable methods of producing polyamines or polyamine compositions have been disclosed: a preparation method by extraction from fish milt (Patent Literature 1); collection methods by separation from milk or milk material (Patent Literature 2 and Patent Literature 3); and preparation methods by treating yeast cells or yeast culture fluid under acidic conditions (Patent Literature 4 and Patent Literature 5). In addition, the following methods of preparing polyamine compositions from plant material have been studied: extraction methods by treating plant material under acidic conditions (Patent Literature 6 and Patent Literature 7); and a method of producing a polyamine extract by adding a solution of a salt such as sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, or calcium chloride to plant material (Patent Literature 8).